Project R-15558

Participatory Design with Regional Living Labs (Research)

The research focuses on the application of a Living Lab format for doing and documenting participatory design in regional transition contexts. This will happen through the setting up of 'Lab Limburg', a Living Lab in the Hasselt city centre facilitated by the University of Hasselt. In this space, researchers, students, government workers, policy makers, local residents and more-than-human communities will be able to experiment with different ways of relating by inviting each other to exchange, take risks and learn creatively together. A Living Lab is thus understood as both a methodology and an environment for open innovation. New divisions of roles between different social actors and new participatory approaches and/or design-driven processes will be developed and tested. The practice-based nature of the project allows not only for documentation of this process, but also the generation of a situated Living Lab toolbox to successfully realize place-based system change and transition.

16 January 2025 - 15 January 2029